My neighbors hunt.  They can survive in the forest, hills, lakes, and rivers, here in Indiana.  They understand the world of nature, its vicissitudes and savagery.  Appreciating its transcendent beauty and cadences, they also accept its fierce cruelties.  They do not worship nature.  They seek reconciliation with it that they may endure and protect their loved ones.  They admire the natural world, its towering majesty and microscopic complexity, but they do not hold it on a pedestal, pristine, and viewed from a distance.  Theirs’ is a realistic appraisal of nature and its vagaries, and what they require to survive.  Coming from the Bronx, I was acquainted with riding the subway or bus or navigating the busy and often treacherous streets of New York.  There I learned to survive in the city, but I knew nothing of hunting, fishing, or surviving in nature.  Coastal elites have disdain for those schooled in such things.  They...(Read Full Article)